OBSBOT Tail Air 4K AI PTZ Camera

I’ve been doing Zoom physical therapy and personal training sessions since the beginning of the pandemic, and got tired of constantly repositioning my laptop with its built-in camera so the therapist & trainer could see me as I moved through the exercises. I knew PTZ cameras existed, but they were prohibitively expensive. When I saw the 1080p version of this camera, I figured I might as well try it—but didn’t expect much, because it was a fraction the price of other PTZ cameras. Turns out it works shockingly well. Setup was pretty much plug-and-go. I did download the app so I could choose the settings that worked best for my use case, but I think even that is optional. The video quality, according to the therapist and trainer, is very good, and the built-in audio is good enough (I think it works with external mics too, but haven’t needed to try one). Its optical zoom range is not quite as long as some of the more expensive PTZ cams, but it’s enough for my purposes. It does a great job of tracking me as I move around: the only times it has stopped tracking are when I’ve been flailing around with my hands during the exercises, probably unintentionally making the hand motion that instructs the camera to stop following. All in, the earlier version of this camera has been one of my best tech accessory purchases. So much so that when I needed to set up another location with a camera, I bought this new 4K version. Works exactly like the 1080p version, but with even better video quality. Even my husband—who is very much NOT a gadget freak—liked this camera so much he now uses it for his work Zoom meetings.

Reviews were very good but I was skeptical that this camera would actually do what I wanted to do. I have a 1200 square foot gym split up into two separate rooms with a division in between. I have a 55″ screen that can be seen in both rooms at around 90% from anywhere, but my Logitech 4k camera cannot see everything clearly from one location. In order for a stationary webcam to do with this camera does, you have to move it manually when you move from one room to the other, major pain, especially when you’re in the middle of training intensely.

The whole purpose of the setup is to be able to train with my trainer working remotely. I tried several different spots with with the Logitech 4K stationary cam, but nothing worked. And those cams don’t have automatic zoom, or gesture driven zoom. They are similarly priced to this one but video quality is not quite as good.

I installed this camera, set up motion tracking and hand gestures for zoom, as well as my maximum desired zoom level, and it gets me everywhere on every single machine during every exercise. Using the motion tracking feature, which is one of three ways to have the camera track you as you move, is as slick as having a camera man there. It’s continuously moving subtly while it’s tracking you.

The only other option was running an app that would allow me to run two cameras, and even that wouldn’t work as well as this, not to mention that it’s a nightmare trying to get webcam apps to run more than one camera at a time. This was the perfect solution, with no caveats. I tested it using the camera app in Windows, and I used it in Skype for my training.

I used the USB 3.0 port, as that’s all that’s available to me on that particular PC, and this thing runs at 4K perfectly on a 10-foot cable. I’ve never seen a webcam with all this functionality at a price even close to this, and it does everything it purports to do, perfectly. I wish my security cams would do with this camera does!

I work from home every day but one per month, and I’m often on Zoom calls. I need to find ways to move around so I’m not sat down for 8 hours a day, but my older webcams would be focused purely on one spot and so I’d have to sit in my chair for as long as a meeting was held.

The Obsbot Tail Air camera has given me the flexibility to basically stand anywhere I like in my home office; through the gesture control I can have the camera track me, and through the feature packed phone app I can control many other aspects of the camera. The tracking feature on this camera is more useful than ‘face tracking’ as I can literally pace around my room at random without fear of the camera losing its focus on me.

The instructions are basic but provide enough baseline information to get up and running, at least informing you of where to go for tutorial videos, explaining the charge LEDs and also the status LED array (which I quite like, it’s futuristic looking).

Firmware updates must be provided via microSD card (not included). You do get a USB-C cable and a USB to USB-C adapter, along with a USB-C double input to single USB-C output. I’m not sure what that’s for, or possibly I’m misinterpreting the purpose of it.

Since this webcam can hold a charge via its built-in battery, it therefore becomes portable – and there’s a hard case included so you can safely transport the camera and its accessories.

I haven’t used the remote, I feel this would be a much needed accessory in a larger corporate environment though. Plus, via the app you can probably do everything the remote does anyway.

I would have given this product 5 stars, but one specific feature of the camera is only available through the virtual camera output (UVC mode). The feature I’m referring to is the Beauty Filter. “I need beauty filter,” screams my face.

So, let’s say you want to just record to the Micro SD card in the camera; you have the beauty feature turned on, your face is looking just the way you want it, and then you hit record. It will not record with the beauty features you had in place. Your face will look like it normally does (without the beauty changes you thought you were recording). For me and anyone seeing my videos, that SUCKS.

To achieve the beauty feature, you have to set the camera into UVC mode and output it to a program such as Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). I was very tempted to give this product 3 stars just for this, but outside of this “failed / missed opportunity” everything else works quite well. I don’t really think it’s worth the hefty $500 price tag either; maybe $300 tops.

Last thing I want to point out is the fact that even though there’s an Auto-Off feature it doesn’t always work. I had mine set to Auto-Off after 5 minutes of non-use while I left to watch tv. A little over an hour later, the battery died. It sat there the whole time (ON) until the battery died. Not cool.

Speaking of “not cool,” it gets VERY VERY hot. OBSBOT Official through Reddit told me this is normal and that I should put it on a metal surface and provide a flow of air to the bottom of the device if possible.

Overall, if you have the money to spend, and you’re not worried about the beauty filter / feature working only in UVC mode, you should consider trying the OBSBOT Tail Air camera!